Never Have I Ever
by shiiki
Summary: This is one game Percy isn't winning. [Christmas giftfic for BooksAndHotChocolate] (Features pretty much the whole cast, except FFN only allows me to select four characters.)


**Summary:** This is one game Percy isn't winning. For **BooksAndHotChocolate** , who requested basically all the main characters (not forgetting Thalia and Will) with Percabeth, Jasper, Frazel, and Solangelo as pairings and the prompt, _A cosy Christmas get together with the seven plus, Reyna, Thalia, Nico and Will, about ten fifteen years into the future, with the kids. (Zoe Bianca/Bianca Zoe Jackson and Luke Charlie Jackson). Just joking around, eating, retelling old stories, etc._

 **A/N** : Dear **BooksAndHotChocolate** , this prompt really grew on me! I think it may have been one of my favourites. It wasn't easy working the names in (well, middle names in particular, as to my knowledge people don't introduce both at one go … or maybe it's different in America? You'll have to enlighten me!) But I hope I managed it and this was something like what you were hoping for! Happy Christmas!

Quick note—'Never have I ever' (or 'I never …' is the form I know it best as) is a game where someone says 'Never have I ever [done xxx]' and everyone around the circle who has done it has to take a penalty. (It can be a drinking game, but it doesn't have to involve alcohol.) I'm not sure how well-known it is where you are, so I thought I'd better explain it first!

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 **Never Have I Ever …**

 _A Christmas giftfic for_ _ **BooksAndHotChocolate**_

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Percy wasn't sure who had started the game, but they were seven rounds in and he was already losing bad.

Or winning, depending on how you looked at it. Then again, considering the reward for snagging each round of 'never have I ever …' was a shot of Leo's hot-spiced eggnog (emphasis on the _hot_ —seriously, someone had to tell the guy that fire didn't go with everything, especially not holiday drinks), with the grand prize being the honour of putting seven hyperactive kids between the ages of three and eight to bed on Christmas Eve, this was _not_ a game Percy was keen to win.

He'd already drank for natural disasters (totally unfair—the deck was stacked against him on that one), personally pissing off a god (they'd agreed that Gaia didn't count for the purposes of the game, but Percy had had a knack for pissing off a number of others, too—Ares still showed up occasionally to remind him of that), having a kid (he and Annabeth had two), and having been a praetor (like, for two days!) He'd even got dinged for restoring a bronze dragon, which Percy was sure Hazel had meant to catch Leo after he'd teased her about her multiple blackouts. One hour spent when he was fifteen helping Annabeth reactivate Festus 1.0 to save Charles Beckendorf and he'd had to drink for it, too.

The problem was, he'd done so much shit over the years that just about ever snare for his friends snagged on him as well.

At least he'd escaped on the multiple blackouts (besides Hazel, Jason had also gone down for that one—everyone voted that getting knocked out repeatedly while they were on the Argo II definitely counted) and Jason's later suggestion of excelling at archery. Frank, Will, and Thalia clinked glasses on that one, while Percy kept his mouth firmly shut. Annabeth's lips quirked, but fortunately, she didn't force him to argue the point that one lucky triple shot at Geryon did not mean he was good at archery.

But he was already five for seven (Calypso was grinning evilly at him from the scoreboard, where she'd played her pregnancy card to sit out and keep score). The closest to him was Hazel, with four, and he couldn't think what to say on his turn that might help her close up. Unless it was that never had he returned from the dead—which might be kind of mean. And besides, he had a feeling Annabeth and Will could both argue that his crashing his own funeral before might count, too.

It was now Piper's turn to go, and she was tracing the rim of her shot glass in a thoughtful way that made Percy feel certain that she was about to get the motherload of 'never have I ever's'.

'Never have I ever … been kidnapped,' she said smugly.

There was a chorus of groans around the room.

'Didn't Enchiladas kidnap your dad?' Leo said.

'I said _I_ never got kidnapped. And don't think I've forgotten your little fiasco with the ice queen—you're going down for this one, Valdez!'

Calypso's marker jolted on the scoreboard. 'Ice queen?'

'She didn't mean you, sunshine,' Leo said quickly. He looked pointedly around the circle. 'And I'm definitely not drinking alone on this one.'

'Don't look at me,' said Thalia.

'Or me,' Reyna added.

Nico gave them an incredulous look. 'Ahem. The Sword of Hades ring a bell, Thalia? And Reyna—remember San Juan?'

Reyna smacked her forehead. 'This is totally your fault,' she muttered to Thalia as she lifted her glass.

'Artemis's bow, I forgot about your stepmother. Does it really count?'

'Of course it does.'

'Well, then you and Percy were with me, so _ha,_ impaled on your own sword!'

Nico shrugged. 'I'd have gone down for getting stuck in that bronze jar anyway.'

'Seriously, Piper, this is so not fair,' Percy complained as half the room raised their glasses to their lips. 'All our adventures were more or less someone being kidnapped. My first _year_ at camp was pretty much a serial kidnapping fiasco—my mom got kidnapped, Grover got kidnapped, Annabeth got kidnapped— _ha,_ that's one for you.' He nudged Annabeth.

' _Artemis_ got kidnapped,' Annabeth corrected.

Percy wagged his finger at her. 'Oh, you definitely did.'

'Fine. But what about Hera kidnapping you and Jason for her stupid swap?'

Percy and Jason exchanged a look and sighed.

'Bottoms up,' Piper said cheerfully.

'I think you should drink for every time you got kidnapped,' Thalia said, her eyes twinkling.

'Oh no.' Percy shook his head at her. 'The rules are once per statement. And I've got one ready-made for you. Never have I ever become a Hunter.'

'Oh, come on,' Thalia groaned. But she topped up her glass and drained it again. 'Well, back at you, Jackson—never have I ever given up an offer of immortality.' She winked at Annabeth. 'Sorry, turning down the Hunters counts, too.'

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. 'You realise that applies to you, too? You didn't join up first time.'

Thalia smacked her forehead. Everyone laughed as Leo refilled the three glasses.

Percy's score was now seven. Thalia had jumped up to five, along with Hazel, and with only Annabeth left to suggest a 'never have I ever,' there was no way he was getting out of bedtime duty tonight.

Unless his wife had some miraculous save. And you never knew, she could be wonderful like that. Percy gave her his best puppy-dog eyes, beseeching her to come up with something good.

Annabeth smiled wryly. 'Never have I ever … had a broken relationship with my mortal parent.'

The room went silent. 'That's morbid, Annabeth,' Reyna said.

'Does it count if they died?' Nico asked.

'Yes.'

'Oh, come on,' Percy said. 'You're supposed to be on my side!'

Annabeth shrugged. 'Sorry, honey. But you weren't going to catch up anyway. I thought I might as well give you one you could actually celebrate.'

It was hard to argue with that. Nobody who knew Sally Jackson-Blofis could argue that she wasn't the best mom in the world.

'And that's why you get to win parent of the night and take the kids up to bed,' Annabeth continued. The rest of their friends cheered at this.

Annabeth leaned in closer. In a whisper low enough that only he could hear, she said, 'I'll make it up to you later.'

Percy kissed the side of her mouth. 'I'll hold you to that.' He held out his glass for a top-up, but handed it to Annabeth. 'You're drinking my shot for me, though. There's only so much of that stuff I can take.'

Leo made a ball of flame dance in his palm. 'Can't take the heat, Jackson?'

Percy didn't bother with a verbal reply—though he made sure none of the kids were peeking through the window when he was gesturing his response.

Their children had set up a fort in the yard where they were fighting out a mini-version of capture the flag with an arsenal of snowballs. Jason and Piper's eldest, Max, led the youngest three—his twin sisters Pippa and Alex, and Percy's five-year-old son Luke—while Frank and Hazel's daughter Josie was marshalling the two Bianca's—Percy's and Nico's respective daughters.

It took ten minutes and multiple promises to tell several exciting stories to cajole the kids into cutting short their battle ('But we're creaming the boys, Uncle Percy,' Maria—Nico's Bianca—complained) and following him indoors. Even after he'd convinced the others, Luke remained stubbornly by the fort, insisting that 'a good warrior doesn't leave his post!'

'Luke Charlie Jackson—'

But Zoë—Percy's Bianca—cut in loftily, 'Stay, then. We'll just have to do story time without you. Good thing, too. If I have to listen again to those silly ones you always ask for, about the Titans and the kid who blew up the ship—'

'But they're my _name stories,_ ' Luke shouted. Immediately he darted past her into the house, afraid of missing out.

Bianca Zoë gave Percy a smug look that reminded him scarily of Annabeth when she bested him at something … but also of their daughter's other namesake—a proud, haughty Huntress who had been equally determined in her plans.

The kids raced up the stairs to the attic, where they'd laid out seven bedrolls so they could pretend to be camping under the skylight. Percy followed, listening to them bicker over what stories they wanted to hear. He smiled, thinking of the game he'd just lost, and the memories of an adventurous life that were so close at hand tonight.

He certainly had a full arsenal for story time.

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 **A/N** : Writing holiday fluff at Christmas time is the best! Thank you so much for giving me the chance to, **BooksAndHotChocolate**! I tried to work in the names in the most natural way possible, which is why I ended up with two Biancas (because let's face it, wouldn't Nico want to honour her, too? And I kind of like the idea of a next-gen Bianca-and-Bianca coalition lol). I hope you didn't mind that and the other kids' names! (Also, I did end up working out exactly who drank on what—I had to draw an entire table for it, lol. And the names of all of the second-gen kids. So if you want to know any of the extra details that got dreamt up but couldn't make it into the fic, just ask.)

The next giftfic will be for **orangeflowers**!


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